FanPost

4/9-4/11 Rumblings

Series Result: Sweep, 3-0

Season Record: 5-3 (First in the AL Central)

After losing the first series to Detroit, Cleveland went to the Motor City and romped all over the hapless Tigers. Miguel Cabrera and Julio Teheran were injured, and the offense woke up to score 20(!) runs in the series; more than the club scored the first five games. The pitching, overall, remained strong resulting in a convincing sweep of the Tigers. Cleveland also took over sole possession of first place (which did not last after Game 1 against Chicago on April 12th, but I am slightly behind on this), giving us something to get excited about after a mediocre first two series.

The Good

Logan Allen, Aaron Civale, Zach Plesac surrendered 2 ER in nearly 20 innings, a superb performance by the starting rotation. Including April 12th: Cleveland leads baseball in defense and has only surrendered 26 runs overall this season, which is 8 fewer than the Twins (who are in 2nd place). The first part of the teams' strategy, not give up many runs, is working out like clockwork, and the starting rotation is the prime reason for this success.

Emmanuel Clase looked superb, effortlessly tossing over 100 MPH fastballs. I cannot recall a Cleveland reliever consistently throwing this hard since I started following the team. In fact, looking at the primary relievers Cleveland employed through the years, here are the top fastballs by speed:

2005, Bob Wickman (90.6), Bob Howry (92.8)

2006. Rafael Betancour (92.6)

2007, Rafael Betancourt (91.4), Rafael Perez (88.4), Joe Borowski (87.8)

2008, Rafael Perez (88.4), Jensen Lewis (89.2), Masa Kobayashi (90.3)

2009, Kerry Wood (96)

2010, Chris Perez (94.9), Joe Smith (91.0)

2011, Chris Perez (94.1), Joe Smith (90.2)

2012, Chris Perez (94.8), Vinnie Pestano (91.2)

2013, Chris Perez (93.2), Cody Allen (96.0), Bryan Shaw (90.9)

2014, Cody Allen (96.2), Bryan Shaw (91.0)

2015, Cody Allen (95.8), Bryan Shaw (92)

2016, Cody Allen (94.9), Bryan Shaw (93.5), Andrew Miller (94)

2017, Cody Allen (94.4), Andrew Miller (94)

2018, Cody Allen (93.7), Andrew Miller (93)

2019, Brad Hand (92.7)

2020, Brand Hand (91.4)

That's a long list of relievers, and only two averaged over 95 MPH over any length of time: Kerry Wood and Cody Allen. Which does not mean Cleveland employed bad relievers over this time. Andrew Miller and Cody Allen were obviously really good! Bryan Shaw, Brad Hand, Chris Perez and Joe Smith (amongst others) were also quite good. The point is Clase throws in a different class (pun not intended). Early returns are good (besides the 12th).

The Better

The offense scored a crap ton of runs, and it was a group effort. That being said Franmil Reyes had a great series hitting three home runs. In Game 2 pretty much everyone got in on the party with the aforementioned Reyes, and also: Hernandez, Bebo, Luplow and Andres Gimenez getting in on the fun as well.

Any time your team can average over 6 runs a game you are doing quite well. Especially after how poorly the offense scored in the first two series.

The Uncertain

The offense did well, the outfield less so only batting .188 for the entire series.

Other than that, there really are not that many complaints to be had for this series, with a little bit of everything getting mixed in for the best result a team can ask for in a series.

Outlook

Cleveland is in first place, the outlook is good! But some tougher competition is ahead of us which will shed more light on how the offense will perform, and give the pitching rotation a sterner challenge. 153 games to go!

What's Next

Three games in Chicago, with Bieber taking the mound as of this writing on the 13th.

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